


Corvi et Lupum

by petvampire



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe, But Powers Still Exist, Daemons, I Don't Even Know, M/M, No Demigods, THIS IS SNOW'S FAULT
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-18
Updated: 2014-04-17
Packaged: 2018-01-19 19:13:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1480891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petvampire/pseuds/petvampire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico has spent too much of his life running - from his odd gift for summoning the dead, from the death of his sister and mother, from the people who would use him and his daemon to their own ends, who see them both as nothing more than lab rats. They live in a world where gifts like his are rare and dangerous, and he has given up everything he's ever had to escape. When he manages to get away and find more people like him, though, it's not the peaceful safe haven he expects. Nico has gotten himself tied up in a conflict that he doesn't entirely understand, and he doesn't know who he can trust.</p>
<p>There's only one thing that anchors him and keeps him from running again: Jason Grace, another with an odd gift, though that's not what keeps Nico from fleeing. He is about the only person in the world who seems willing to accept the boy who speaks to the dead, the one who found him when he thought he was doomed to death, and the one who keeps striving to keep him alive.</p>
<p>The only person in the world who Nico can trust - and that's the most dangerous thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Corvi et Lupum

**Author's Note:**

  * For [folklores](https://archiveofourown.org/users/folklores/gifts).



> SNOW WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME.
> 
> Okay, so for those of you who follow me on Tumblr, you've probably seen the prompting and inordinate screeching about the daemon!fic. xD For those of you who don't: a friend requested Jasico with daemons, a la 'His Dark Materials,' because we were talking about how freaking perfectly matched up they would totally be and things spiraled out of control from there. This is going to be a total monster, so blame Snow for that forever.
> 
> To be clear: this isn't exactly a crossover, it isn't exactly using the concept as initially written, and it isn't exactly set in any known universe; it's become this bizarre mess of different concepts in the process of writing it. Demigods and daemons have turned into this strange, dystopian world that's one part an X-Men style fear of people with powers and differences, one part 'His Dark Materials' creepy experiments on kids and daemons because the world is just that screwed up, and one part this weird THING that is a generally ridiculous blend of our favorite PJO/HOO concepts with a very loose world idea. I kind of just threw it all into my brain, spun it around, and let it go, so we'll see what happens.
> 
> Questions, comments, and concerns are all more than welcome, either here or on Tumblr (petvampire.tumblr.com, per usual). That said, approach this with an open mind, and I hope you all enjoy it.
> 
> <3

Nico di Angelo had never thought he'd see the day when he was afraid of the sound of wings overhead.

He had grown up surrounded by birds. Every daemon in his family, when it had settled, had taken an avian form; his own daemon had ended up as a sleek raven when she'd settled into a single form, a vivid dark counterpoint to his sister's snow-white sparrowhawk. Except that the hawk was gone now, and so was Bianca. Taken by the same people following him now, the same person whose daemon's wingbeats in the distance had him desperately looking for shelter before the griffon vulture spotted them.

“Come on,” he mumbled, adjusting his grip on the raven in his arms. Morrigan had been hurt when they'd made a run for it, and Nico could still feel the pain of it; a shattered wing, a shattered arm, it all felt the same. He kept his left arm tightly pressed to his side, his daemon cradled in the crook of his right, and _ran_ , hoping to outpace the great carrion bird on their trail.

The vulture had been following them for days. Ever since they had found Bianca and taken her; ever since they had found out that she was _different_ , and that she had a brother who was the same. Nico didn't think his sister would ever have given him up voluntarily, but he also didn't think that these were the sort of people who gave a damn about _voluntary_. Somehow or another, they'd gotten the information, and they'd come for him, too.

If he hadn't had forewarning, they might have caught him, and who knew what they would have done. The same thing they'd done to Bianca, he guessed; whatever it was that had killed her.

She was dead, and he knew it. She had told him so herself.

He was far from the familiar city he'd grown up in, the twisting streets he knew how to navigate. He'd left the city limits behind him days ago, had scrambled out into the wilder wastelands surrounding the city in a vain attempt to throw off his pursuers. Not that it had mattered. They had followed him even out here, and he wasn't so good at taking care of himself in the wilderness. He was coming on the end of his strength, the end of his desperate plans to get away; he was failing, and he was sure it wouldn't be long before they found them. Wouldn't be long before he ended up in the same place his sister had, and probably ended up just as dead.

But he wasn't going without a fight. There was a cave, he saw now, little more than a niche tucked in the side of a hill, a shallow refuge, but the best thing he had. He put on a desperate burst of speed, trying to shield Morrigan from the worst of the impact as he dove for the shelter, belly-crawling through the dirt to drag himself into the cave, curling around his daemon.

They huddled against one another, in pain and exhausted, and waited for the wings to pass.

~

He didn't know when, exactly, he had fallen asleep. It wasn't exactly sleep, more like he'd just sort of passed out, driven too close to his limits to stay conscious any longer. If he had been capable, he would never have let himself sleep, would have been afraid that he would wake up to find his captors standing over him, to find himself being dragged away, back to the city, to the facility they had taken Bianca to. Instead, he woke to Morrigan's indignant squawk, the raven's voice startling him into awareness.

The first thing he saw was the head of the great grey wolf nosing her way into the shallow cave, regarding them both with unnerving blue eyes as she sniffed at the raven's feathers, like she was trying to assess what the other daemon was. The wolf was trailed by a tall, blonde teenager with a tiny scar over his lip, stooping to look down at them, brows furrowed over the same electric blue eyes. “Are you all right?”

Nico scrambled back, the earth giving an uneasy tremor beneath him as he instinctively lashed out, tried to find safety, protection. The guy in front of them raised his hands, palm-out, in a very clear gesture of 'I mean you no harm.' “Hey. It's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you. Aella just smelled blood, we wanted to make sure everything was okay.” The wolf huffed her agreement, pulling back a few steps, tail hanging down loosely, wagging just slightly. “... do you need some help?”

He should have said no. He didn't know this guy, didn't trust him – he didn't trust _anyone_ , after all this. But Morrigan looked up at him plaintively, still in pain, and he didn't have anywhere else to go. It was take a risk, or end up dead, though he might just be resigning himself to death, anyway.

Finally he nodded, jaw clenching, eyes dark and mistrustful. The blonde just nodded back, glancing over his shoulder for a moment, then turning his attention back to Nico. “My name's Jason. I have some friends in the area, we can help you out, okay? And if you need somewhere to go... Well, we'll talk about that once you get patched up.” He smiled, and it seemed sincere – but so had the people who had taken Bianca away.

“Don't get ahead of yourself,” he muttered, carefully, painfully dragging himself up, still trying not to jostle his injured daemon too much. He was unsteady on his feet, but he still managed to glare at the other, just a touch hostile. “We'll see if you even keep your word.”

Jason looked a little perturbed by Nico's lack of trust, but he just nodded again, stepping out of the way to let the other out of his temporary shelter. “Just follow me.”

He was still exhausted, and more badly hurt than he'd realized; there were scrapes and bruises everywhere, most of them crusted over with blood, and his arm was still held stiffly against his side. The injury might be his daemon's, but Nico could still _feel_ it. Every muscle was stiff and sore, his skull aching, eyes rubbed red and raw from too many hours awake. It hurt to move, but he made himself follow after the stranger, refusing to let himself look any weaker.

Still, he was relieved when they didn't have to walk far. He wasn't sure how far he _could_ go without falling, honestly. Before, he'd been driven by fear and adrenaline. Now that he had stopped for even a little while, he couldn't get it back, couldn't muster the energy. If Jason _was_ someone he should be afraid of, an enemy, he wasn't sure he had it in him to fight him off. Especially not with Morrigan wounded.

He could be walking into a trap, but right now, he didn't _care_ anymore.

They came to a stop just beyond the bend of another hill, where a stream cut across their path, winding around into a stand of scrubby woodland. Jason looked at him, something reserved and slightly hesitant in his expression. “We need to cross,” he said quietly, like that simple statement somehow meant more. “You need to hold onto me; I know it's a little unusual, but we need to be in contact-- “ He reached out, like he'd put a hand on the other's shoulder, and Nico shied away, stepping back.

“I don't like being touched,” he snapped in response, and Jason looked apologetic.

“If it weren't necessary, I wouldn't ask. Just... trust me, okay?” he added quietly, a melancholy sort of look in his eyes. Nico studied him, eyes narrowed; it was a weird request, but there didn't seem to be any kind of malice to it. Lips pressed together into a tight line, and he nodded. Jason's hand settled lightly on his shoulder, touch incredibly hesitant, and he led them forward.

The stream was broader than he'd thought, almost knee-deep in the center, and something about it felt like it was almost _resistant_ to his passing. Jason's hand tightened just a little on his shoulder, like he was trying to be reassuring, and Nico had to fight not to just shake him off then and there. Instead he let the other guide him up the other bank, almost jerking away when the blonde actually let go.

All of a sudden, he was standing on the fringes of a camp that he was _sure_ hadn't been there before.

There were five or six large tents laid out in a near, orderly semi-circle, all of them made of heavy, industrial-grade canvas to keep out the weather, carefully staked and bound to the ground to make sure they weren't going anywhere. They were in dark, neutral colors, but that didn't explain how Nico had just missed their being there at all; even a well-camouflaged site couldn't just completely disappear from view. There was something strange at play here, something that made the hairs at the back of his neck prickle, his instincts trying to give him warning.

There was a large campfire at the center of the site, banked to embers right now, with several tables spread around it. The camp seemed to house a number of people – teenagers and kids mostly, some looking as young as nine or ten, with still-shifting daemons, the oldest around eighteen or nineteen, stern and serious.

At one of the tables nearest the firepit, a dark-haired girl with deep set black eyes and a suspicious scowl on her lips stood, a sleek silver wolfhound trailing at her heels. Her daemon growled low in his throat, and Nico could feel Morrigan stirring against his grip, clearly wanting to go on the defensive, but unable to do so with her injuries. Nico himself was stiff, not sure where he was, or who he was dealing with.

This didn't _look_ like one of the places Bianca had told him about, one of the labs where people like him and there daemons were taken, studied. This was a bunch of kids in a mysteriously hidden camp in the woods; he might not trust them, but he didn't think they were the ones he'd been running from.

“What is this, Jason?” The girl was striding towards them, her daemon stalking ahead; the blonde's wolf moved quickly between them, standing defensively in front of Nico and Morrigan, hackles raised. “You can't just bring people here, it's _dangerous_ , you know that-- “

“So I was supposed to leave them hurt and alone out in the open? That's ridiculous, Reyna,” Jason retorted, sounding just as defensive as his daemon's posture would suggest. Nico had no idea why he was getting so protective over him, but maybe he was just a bleeding heart who couldn't stand to see anyone hurt. It would surprise him less than anything else he'd seen today.

Reyna stared at him, her gaze sharp and cutting, like she was looking for some hidden catch, some reason to turn him away. Nico could understand her mistrust, but that didn't mean he liked it. He was still exhausted, in pain, and thoroughly finished dealing with people. If they were going to throw him out, send him off on his own again, they needed to just _do_ it already, not just debate about it.

Evidently the girl realized that as well; her daemon moved before she did, huffing and stalking back to settle at his human's feet, and she gave a stiff nod. “Fine. Get them to Leila. But you owe me an explanation afterward, Grace.” She glared at Nico again, eyes hard. “They don't belong here.”

Nico's jaw clenched; he'd heard that before. The girl stalked away, and Jason let out a quiet sigh beside him, shooting him an apologetic look. “Don't mind Reyna. She takes protecting this place seriously, so she can get a little... intense.” He forced a small smile, shaking his head. “Come on. Leila is our best healer, she'll set you right.”

He followed the blonde towards one of the tents, the wolf pacing at his heels and circling around him like she was afraid he'd bolt. As though he had anywhere to run. The last of Nico's energy had run out, the effort of making it here and trying to hold his ground against yet another person telling him he didn't belong taking its toll. He was aware of Jason holding the tent flap open for him, of two sets of eerily similar blue eyes regarding him, human and daemon both clearly concerned. Then his vision faded to black, and he felt himself slipping, losing his grasp on Morrigan. The raven's startled, pained squawk and the wolf's sharp, warning bark were the last things he heard before he crumbled entirely into darkness.


End file.
